


Sand Between Our Fingers

by Lassie_inBloom



Series: The Ones Who Are Still Here [1]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Big Brother Levi Ackerman, Bonding, Canon Compliant, Cuddling & Snuggling, Domestic Bliss, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Gen, Levi Has Feelings (Shingeki no Kyojin), Levi is So Done (Shingeki no Kyojin), Platonic Cuddling, Post-Chapter 51, Sharing a Bed, Sharing a Room, but at the same time, main trio being soulmates if you squint, this is how i cope with canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-13 14:42:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29030367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lassie_inBloom/pseuds/Lassie_inBloom
Summary: Levi will never say it aloud, but this cabin, this noisy, overcrowded, piece of reality apart from the world, at times feels like a home.OR: Levi may not say it but his love language is actions and he cares about his squad of brats a lot.
Series: The Ones Who Are Still Here [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2138010
Comments: 20
Kudos: 101





	Sand Between Our Fingers

**Author's Note:**

> The truth is I've been following the manga for years but never wrote anything for the fandom. I rewatched the whole anime in three days (which still comes to me in flashbacks like a fever dream) and woke up with this idea. This is how I cope with angst. With copious amounts of toothrooting fluff.  
> Enjoy!

By the time Levi raises his head from the documents he has been reading, the torch is almost burned out. It still lights up the room, the moon hidden behind thick clouds that anticipate a strong rainfall tomorrow. Just like Sasha said during dinner.

Levi collects the papers 一some strategies Erwin sent to him via Hange一, let’s the last of the torch burn out, and heads to his room. 

The cabin is not too big. It probably was appropriate for the family of four that seemed to live here before the fall of wall Maria, but now it was abandoned. Clothes 一from a man and a woman, and some pieces small enough to fit a four-year-old child一 and mementos like portraits and journals forgotten on dust covered shelves. The inclement weather and the passing of time taking their toll on the structure too, walls and floors creaking at the slightest change in temperature.

But they were not a family of four, now the cabin was inhabited by more than double its capacity and at first Levi had frowned at the idea, but the kids didn’t seem to mind. They even seemed satisfied, saying it reminded them of the dorms during their instruction years, which were filled with fear, sweat and fights but, if there was something they learned in the end, that was how to live together. So they divided the space for the boys to share one room, the girls another and Levi with his own, as the captain of the squad that he was. He isn’t one to abuse his power and position, but for this one he made an exception, even though the kids didn’t even complain.

It’s not like they had any other option, they had to protect Eren and Historia 一they have already been kidnapped once, and no one wanted a repeat of the situation一 and hiding in a deep and forgotten part of the woods seemed like the best course of action, as well as the perfect environment for Hange to subject Eren to their experiments to their heart’s content.

Levi crosses the corridor silently, the cabin too quiet in comparison to the voices and steps and movement he often got away from during the day, be it by going out to cut some wood or by volunteering as the first guard after assigning the tasks and chores for the day.

He is about to pass by the boys’ room when something catches his eye. These brats. Again. They left the curtains open again. Levi sighs and opens the door, careful for the inevitable creaks everything in this cabin produces. All of them are soundly asleep by now. Levi’s not sure what time it is, but it’s late, that he’s sure of, because even Jean is out.

Levi takes a look at the boy, finding him asleep in his bed, only his spiky hair peeking out of the blanket. Looks like tonight is a night free of nightmares. Levi pushes Jean’s shoes a bit more under the bed with his foot, fully aware Connie will trip over them on his way to the door in the morning when he wakes up without knowing where the north is or what year it is.

Lately, Jean has been staying up late, in the beginning just sitting outside the front door on the steps, looking at the night sky, and Levi could easily keep an eye on him through the window, in between turning pages. Levi wasn’t sure if Jean had a lot on his head or if he simply was delaying having to suffer through his nightmares. It was not the first time Levi had seen something like this. But Jean did not acknowledge his behaviour and Levi did not confront him about it. Although in the last few days, with winter approaching at a dizzying speed, the nights long and the morning cold, Jean began sitting inside instead. He quietly read by the light as Levi wrote his reports, both surrounded in a muted calmness that only camaraderie brought, with the only sound in the room being the creaking of the torches and the tip of the quill scratching on the pages. The rest of the house, asleep. That was the only time Levi addressed this, otherwise the boy would still be freezing himself to death outside, because if Jean was one thing it was stubborn.

But tonight he seemed to have fallen asleep peacefully, and what little Levi could see about his face now, he looked relaxed and young, a bit lighter than hours ago. Maybe it had to do with the conversation he saw Jean have with Armin while they were both on guard duty this afternoon, standing on top of the guard post and looking out as far as their eyes could see. He could guess what that was about, and was relieved that whatever they were going through after their operation to rescue Eren and Historia, at least they could be each other’s support. Levi knew what it was like coming to terms with having your hands stained red for the first time.

Stepping over a shirt and Eren’s arm, pressing on all the right floor boards to avoid the creaking, he reaches the window, makes sure it is shut and closes the curtains. Otherwise they will wake up all grumpy and fight over who had the task of closing the curtains and Levi could only handle so much teenage quarrel in the crack of morning.

On the other bed lies Connie and unlike Jean, he is spread all over the mattress as if to make the most of this night in a real bed. The boys 一Armin Arlert一 have designed a rotation system that allows the four of them to switch beds everyday so that everyone will get to sleep in one of the two beds the same amount of nights. The other two sleep on some thick blankets they have arranged on the floor, and although the intention is for them to look like mattresses, it’s just one big nest of cushions, rugs and blankets.

Levi rolls his eyes, grabs Connie’s ankle and inserts his leg back inside the warmth of the comforter. The boy doesn’t so much as wrinkle his nose, only letting out another one of his snores. Levi shakes his head in disbelief to avoid clicking his tongue. These kids.

On his way out he eyes Eren and Armin, who are sleeping in the blanket cocoon they have put side by side because of course they are attached to the hip even while asleep. They just gravitate towards each other. Mikasa too. Levi has seen the three of them sharing tents and beds whenever they go out in expeditions or training trips.

Armin and Eren sleep facing each other, their foreheads almost touching and Armin’s hands lightly grabbing Eren’s shirt, his whole body folded into a ball because Eren is a bastard and a blanket hoarder and poor Armin is sleeping uncovered on the floor. Levi fights the urge to flick the titan shifter on the head, so he just strips him from the blanket he was practically hugging more than using as a cover, probably with more force than necessary. Levi won’t be sorry if Eren wakes up in the process. Okay, so he has been following Hange’s orders all day and has shifted so many times no one knows how he was still standing up by dinner time, but it’s still not an excuse. The thing is that Eren was so tired after dinner that he was the first one to head to bed, and by the time Armin went to sleep too, Eren was probably already hoarding all the covers. Knowing Armin, he let him. Levi is going to flick him too. Stupid kids, you start by letting your friend hoard the sheets and the next thing you know is that you’re being eaten by a titan in their place.

Eren doesn’t wake up even when the blanket is ripped from his iron grip, and instead, before Levi sets the cover over the both of them, he sees Eren’s hands reaching to grab Armin too. He knows a deeply rooted habit when he sees it. They probably slept like this as kids, maybe when they were refugees and had to share everything in order to survive, be it food, a glass of water or a bunk, just as they recounted at the table during a dinner or a breakfast.

When he leaves the room, he closes the door softly at his back, making sure it doesn’t click too loudly. He then heads to the girls’ room too because it would be wrong not to. He’s never been one to play favorites. It’s the next door, anyway. As expected, their room is tidy, no shoes or pieces of clothing scattered across the floor, and the windows and curtains are perfectly closed. There’s a double bed inside this one and because the boys were too manly and muscular 一their words一 to share the bed, the girls gladly took it without so much as a roll of eyes. Given that there’s only three of them and that Historia is compact and petite, the fit is wide enough. Mikasa sleeps on one side of the bed, the closest to the door, and Sasha and Historia sleep cuddled on the other one.

Levi doesn’t risk going inside the room. He guesses Mikasa is as light of a sleeper as he himself is. Always with one eye open, guard never lowering. He doesn’t need to go inside anyway, everything is in order and even though Levi can appreciate even from over the comforter that Sasha has one leg draped over Historia’s frame and her arms encircling her tightly, Historia sleeps deeply and drools over her side of the pillow.

Mikasa turns around, shakes her head and opens one eye. “Captain?” She whispers.

Levi was right. “It’s late, sleep.”

Mikasa sits up, looking around, her gaze fixing on the other side of the bed and watches the other girls sleep for a moment. “Something happened?” She asks.

“Nothing,” Levi assures her and Mikasa turns her head to face him, to examine his face for lies. “Was about to head to my room.”

She finds none, and so her shoulders relax, her hands falling on her lap. 

“Goodnight,” Levi says, waiting for her to settle.

She nods and lays back down, her back to him, facing Sasha and Historia.

“Goodnight.”

He waits for a few seconds and upon hearing no more movement in the room, just the deep breaths of the ones sleeping, he closes the door as gently as the other one.

His room is in the attic, and he thinks it was a guest room but it serves its purpose just as well. He gets to have his own room, a bed to sleep and some peace and quiet for a while. It’s colder up here, but that’s never bothered him too much. When he gets inside the bed and rests still, he can still listen to Connie's snores all the way up here. They don’t annoy him as much as he would pretend. At first he was reluctant to accept this group of cadets, of kids 一even worse, teenagers一, as his new squad, but they have proven time and time again their capabilities and why exactly they are still alive. Levi will never say it aloud, but this cabin, this noisy, overcrowded, piece of reality apart from the world, at times feels like a home.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed this stupid little story, you can leave a comment and follow me on Twitter (@Lassie_inBloom) where I talk about K-Pop and anime as if someone listened.


End file.
